Letter to Secretary Ridge from Human Rights and Civil Liberties Groups In November 2002, the U.S. Congress passed a bill creating a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The DHS' mission is to prevent terrorism and respond to any terrorist acts in the United States. The DHS combines 22 previously separate government agencies. Among them was the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which had most of its functions split into three separate agencies with the DHS. Immigration service functions, such as citzenship and asylum applications, are now handled by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS). Two separate agencies are charged with enforcing immigration laws. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) will handle interior immigration enforcement, such as detention, removal, and investigations. The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (BCBP) will handle immigration enforcement at the border, among other tasks. Before the bill was passed in November, Human Rights Watch had written to U.S. Senators asking that they include civil rights protections in the bill that authorized the creation of the DHS. HRW's letter called for the creation of two positions: an Assistant Inspector General for Civil Rights, and a Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Officer. Although the bill that passed established an officer for civil rights and civil liberties in this new and powerful agency, the officer is not empowered to conduct investigations of rights violations by agency officials. HRW continues to urge the DHS to establish adequate oversight and accountability mechanisms for violations of civil rights by its agents and officers. On March 12, Human Rights Watch and numerous other human rights and civil liberties groups sent a letter to Tom Ridge, the new Secretary of the DHS, asking that he appoint a highly-qualified expert in civil rights to the position of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer and urging the Secretary to put in place systems to prevent rights abuses from occurring. Because the DHS now controls immigration enforcement, Human Rights Watch and other groups are concerned that abuses committed by INS and Border Patrol agents in the past and documented by HRW in previous reports, such as excessive use of force, will not be investigated and punished. March 12, 2003
The Honorable Tom Ridge, Secretary Dear Mr. Secretary:
We are writing to urge you to appoint an experienced, effective Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties as required under Section 705 of the Homeland Security Act ("HSA"). This position is extremely important for the protection of fundamental constitutional rights as the new Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") carries out its mission of protecting national security. We are part of a national coalition of immigrants' rights and civil and human rights groups who urge you to put into place adequate rights protections for all communities in the United States.
As part of the mandate of the DHS, we hope you will take the opportunity of a newly-structured agency to put in place mechanisms to prevent such abuses from continuing to occur. These mechanisms should include clear agency-wide policies, proper training, preventive measures, and adequate remedies. We are sure that you will agree that we need to make effective legal protections an integral part of the DHS structure, in order to guard against the types of abuse of authority that can lead to serious violations of civil rights and civil liberties. In light of the current terrorist threats faced by the United States, there is a strong possibility that some immigration or border patrol officials will believe they have carte blanche to conduct their work without respect for civil rights and civil liberties. Immigrant communities and people of color know from tough experience that it is all too easy for officials to use racial profiling in their quest to enforce immigration laws-but these tactics will do nothing to deter crime and terrorism, and in fact might hamper these efforts. It is therefore imperative that you nominate a Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer who is truly an expert in the field. The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer will be charged to "review and assess information alleging abuses of civil rights, civil liberties, and racial and ethnic profiling by employees and officials of the Department," §705(a)(1) HSA, which involves significant responsibility given that DHS contains twenty-two previously-separate agencies. No less than a civil rights expert, with many years of experience and the intellectual background required to assess such a broad range of potential abuses in so many different functions, could effectively complete this task. Aside from reviewing alleged abuses, the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer should also be capable of assessing what violations of law have occurred, and what steps must be undertaken to effectively investigate, prosecute, punish and compensate for violations of civil rights and civil liberties. We would also hope that the Officer would have the capacity and authority to contribute to the development of policies and programs that may affect civil rights and civil liberties and to design monitoring and compliance policies and preventive measures, such as training programs for new as well as existing agency staff. It is also essential that the Officer have the stature and experience to provide leadership and expertise within DHS, so that respect for civil rights and civil liberties is clearly part of every employee's mandate.
For all of these reasons, we urge you to appoint a highly qualified civil rights expert to the vitally important post of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer. We look forward to working with you to fashion effective ways of protecting fundamental rights as your agency carries out its important mission.
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
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